The Twenty-Third
by carter.emily
Summary: "Only the dead have seen the end of war." -Plato One day may change a life. It certainly has theirs.
1. February 23, 1979 - The Loss of Azkaban

Page 12

February 23 of 1979 - The Loss of Azkaban

The silence that had encompassed the table that the Order usually sat around was enveloping the room, and to be honest? No one quite knew what to say, or what they would even be able to say in something a situation like they were stuck in. There was nothing that could realistically be done at this point, not that wouldn't unnecessarily risk the lives of the few members that they had at this point.

Instead of speaking, however, their eyes were locked on the small eagle that was sitting on the thick wooden table that Fabian Prewett had sent to them just ten minutes earlier with the distinct, clear message that Azkaban had fallen. It was a stronghold that the Ministry had held for centuries, a place that they had put all of their prisoners and wrong doers and of everything that they thought they would experience in this war, they never thought that would be something that the Ministry would lose.

It was Lily Evans, a tall redhead that was normally so lively and energetic that it took a special brand of human to keep up with the woman, that finally broke the silence of the room, barely speaking above a whisper at first with James Potter only able to hear her until Dorcas Meadowes elbowed her in the side. "What are we going to do?"

"What do you mean, Miss Evans?" Dumbledore said, popping a lemon drop in his mouth as the group turned to look at him for a moment before back at Lily for a second.

"Azkaban. They _took_ Azkaban, and I just… Professor Dumbledore, did you think that they had the kind of forces that would be able to take something that was guarded by Auror's so heavily?" she asked, raising her eyebrows at the elderly man for a moment before shaking her head. "This changes everything, doesn't it?"

"It does indeed, and it does not serve one well to underestimate the enemy, Miss Evans. An attack was a long time coming, and I imagine that the Minister of Magic will be to have seen that as well."

There was a moment of pause before a loud clang of sound in the halls and a shout of 'I'm fine!', a small wait of silence before Sirius Black bursted in the room with more than a slight commotion before dropping down into an empty seat next to Peter. "Sorry I'm late, mates, was at the pub," he said by way of answer to the curious looks, raising his eyebrows at Remus when his long-time friend narrowed his eyes at him and shrugged his shoulders.

The silence that followed Sirius' entrance was long and pronounced, the fact that the man's presence had somehow created a wholly new dynamic within the room was not lost to anyone, nor to Sirius as Peter leaned over and told him what was going on with the Auror's and the Ministry. The man's hand immediately had gone to threat through his hair before a heavy sigh escaped his lips.

It was Emmeline Vance that was the next to speak, her own fingers knotted together in front of her in an effort to keep herself calm as her eyes scanned over each person. Emmeline was one of the few Slytherins that were a part of the Order at the present time, and the strain that it created was keenly felt when she was the only particular one at a given order meeting, and this one was certainly no exception. "Professor? How many…" she started before fading off, sighing as she glanced around the room for a split second before looking back at the elderly man, "How much damage do you believe will be done to the Ministry by this?"

It was the Headmaster's turn to be silent as he tried to figure out how to word what it was that was running through his head. The vast majority of the students that were in front of him just then were ones that he himself had watched grow into the adults that now sat before him. It was hard to imagine that they were in the middle of when they were sitting in the Order headquarters, and it was a difficult situation for any of them to begin to comprehend. These were students who should have never had to go through this war, let alone be the ones that are fighting in it. "That is something that is yet to be determined, Miss Vance, though I do imagine that there will be a loss of manpower," Professor Dumbledore said in way of answering her previous question.

It wasn't an easy situation to be in, the Order having to sit and wait with no way of really effecting anything or helping out for fear of losing more of their numbers than they already had out and about. More than a fair portion of their members were Aurors or various other Ministry personnel, and even now there were more than their fair share unaccounted for. There was little comfort in the fact that Fabian's Patronus was the one that had brought the message given that it was nearing a half hour ago that it was sent and a man could easily be taken down in that timespan.

Marlene Mckinnon was bound to be a target of particular interest of the Death Eaters, being a Pureblood that was publicly siding with the Muggleborns and Half-Bloods, right alongside the fact that both Alice and Frank Longbottom. To those in the room, these were people that many of them were close with and that wasn't even counting every other Auror and Ministry official.

The room started when Emmeline's wand started moving across the table, the blonde taking a second to steady her hands before she moved to grab the thin stick of wood and nodded her head at Professor Dumbledore. "That would be Saint Mungo's," she said softly, her hand squeezing Dorcas' shoulder as she stood. Despite being a Half-Blood, Emmeline had managed to secure a place in the Healer's program at Saint Mungo's upon finishing Hogwarts, and was one continuing her time there despite having finished already. It were days like these that made it of particular value to the Order, given that she could sometimes get outside information that many others wouldn't for hours, particularly who was no longer living and who was just simply injured.

"I'll walk you out, Vance," Sirius suddenly said, nodding at Dumbledore and clapping Peter on the shoulder as a way of helping him stand before joining Emmeline as she walked out of the room.

Sometimes relationships were simple and clearcut, like how James and Lily's was, because after all? A couple that argued the way that they still did was something that was particularly helpful in communicating just how much they were willing to fight to make it work. Emmeline and Sirius, on the other hand, were everything complicated.

It was Emmeline that paused at the front door of the building and turned to look at Sirius, arching one of her eyebrows for a second before the man's hand was at her elbow and stepping into her personal space. Sirius was strange and complex, and for the most part Emmeline tended to just roll with whatever the man would throw at her, but this was one of those particular times that she wasn't sure what it was that he was trying to communicate with his eyes and she almost just wanted to ask him to spit it out without sounding to harsh.

She was tired, and if she was completely honest with someone, she would even said that the stress was finally beginning to get to her enough that her cousin, Mary Macdonald, was sincerely beginning to notice just how out of sorts Emmeline was these days.

It was Sirius that seemed to continually confuse her definition of friendship and blurred the lines to the point that they lingered into something romantic. Neither would say it, but the look that he was currently giving her, the one that Emmeline couldn't quite figure out what it meant, well it also made her stomach flip pleasantly and warmed her in ways that she didn't even bother trying to put to words. "You floo if anything goes wrong, do you hear me?" he finally said.

The chuckle that she let escape her lips was pitiful, and a bit sarcastic if she was completely honest with herself. Really? Of all the places and people that Sirius should be worrying about right now, Saint Mungo's and Emmeline should probably be right at the bottom of the list, but somehow he still managed to find importance in it to pull her aside to say something. His fingers were flexing against her wrist, eventually causing her to step just close enough that she could smell his aftershave and cause her to let out a heavy sigh of acceptance. "The moment anything happens, I promise you will be the first call that I make, Black."

For the most part, it was something that would placate him, that would make him worry just a little bit less so he would let Emmeline slip out of the room and go back to the real life that she led outside of these walls and away from secret organizations and lying to her family. That was for the most part, at least, but Emmeline also knew that he would certainly be high on her list of people that would know the moment something went wrong if she could get a message out, right there next to Dumbledore and her long-time best friend, Dorcas. "I need to go, Sirius," she said softly, pulling her hand away before he let the fingers of his free hand leave a trail up her arm, cupping the back of her neck and letting his fingers knot their way into her hair and wrapped his other arm around her waist and pulling her close for a moment.

There was a rough kiss against her brow and then suddenly Sirius was gone and striding back down the hallway towards the meeting room that they had long used.

The halls of Saint Mungo's were so chaotic when Emmeline had finally Apparated there, that for a moment she wondered whether or not she was in the right place before she caught sight of Healer Strout and let out a breath of relief before the woman took hold of her elbow and tugged her into what seemed to be an empty office and started to ramble.

For the most part, apparently it was relatives of those that were a part of the Ministry's attack teams, and even some of those who had family members being housed in Azkaban's prisons, that were cluttering the halls, but it also was apparently driving both Miriam and Healer Smethwyck up the walls, and Mary was still trying to sort through the first wave of Auror's that had been sent to them. There was little information that she could get out of the older woman, though she did fix her with a calming draught and instructions to start consolidating the current patients into rooms together if at all possible and making notations for each floor.

There was a lot of blood at the intake room, though there was almost a constant presence of the substance, no matter what kind of day it was that anyone had, and Emmeline found herself wishing that she wasn't wearing a pair of her favorite shoes when she stepped in and was immediately given a file and pointed in a direction saying that she had been requested.

It was hours before Emmeline even stepped back out of that particular part of the hospital and her feet were more than sore and there were specks of blood on almost every bit of exposed skin. She had to admit, there was something different about this particular battle, and the Death Eaters were definitely out to make some of the Auror's pay for things that they had done in the line of duty. There were others that she knew wouldn't make it through the evening, and those in particular were the worst for her.

The simplicity of the situation made her bones ache at the thought, the questions lingering in her head as she slipped into one of the rooms that were set aside for the Healers. Just exactly how out numbered were the Aurors with the Death Eaters? She had almost asked Frank Longbottom when he had stumbled in with a dislocated shoulder and a particularly nasty ankle that she wasn't entirely sure whether it was broken or just a bad sprain that would need to heal. Mary, however, had grabbed the man before she'd even had a chance to approach him and get more information than she already knew.

Emmeline scrubbed until her skin was raw in order to get all of the blood off of her hands before she emerged back into the halls, her body exhausted and overwhelmed when she caught sight of Benjy Fenwick. He was one of the only other Slytherin's that she knew wasn't actively in support of Lord Voldemort, and it certainly helped that she also knew that the man was involved with the Order. Then again, it also didn't hurt that the two were relatively close to each other since she had finished Hogwarts either.

It wasn't exactly… lady like for Emme to just drop next to Benjy with next to no preamble, but her feet hurt and she didn't want to stand there talking to him while he was sitting on the ground no matter how intimidating it might have made her. Emmeline ran a hand through her hair for a second before giving up and just tying it in a messy bun and looking over at her friend for a moment before nudging him gently with her shoulder, "So, that weather today is _crazy_, isn't it?" she said, giving him a small smile.

"You know what I hate?"

"Umm…" she said softly, pulling back slightly so she could turn and get a good look at the man. "Apparently the weather?"

"That even though I purposefully didn't sign up to be an Auror, I'm just supposed to be someone who works in the Department of Mysteries and all that, nope… the moment there is an insane breakout at Azkaban and Death Eaters flood the island, apparently that means that anyone with battlefield training is now an Auror," he growled, his arms crossed against his chest as he leaned his head back up against the wall behind him.

"Ben…" she said softly, careful not to touch him in case he rest was as angry as he was coming across in that moment.

"Nope, it's fine, because I signed my life to them," he said, turning and glaring at Emmeline when she burst out laughing and shook her head as she buried her face in her hands.

Really, it was probably one of the least appropriate times that she had run into since she'd finished school to burst out laughing, but she was so damn tired, and Benjy's reasons for being upset _were_ a little ridiculous given the situation that they were in. "I'm — Merlin, I'm sorry," she said, clapping her hand over her mouth for a minute when she started laughing again when she looked at Benjy before she finally managed to get herself back under control. "I'm sorry, you're right, I'm just so tired and really?" Emmeline said, patting the man's shoulder now that he was a little less tense after looking at the younger woman as though she may have finally gone over the deep end. "You're complaining about having to fight when Azkaban was just taken over by Death Eaters in the middle of a war, and really? Like… job titles are a little irrelevant in my book now."

The glare that Benjy gave Emmeline in return made her chuckle again, "Oh _bite me_, Vance."

At that, Emmeline turned her head and sunk her teeth into Benjy's shoulder, unable to resist cracking up when the man yelped and pushed her off to the side before settling down and just simply rubbing his arm. "You _did_ tell me to go ahead and do it, Fenwick," she said with a shrug, "Come on, we need to go find Professor Dumbledore so you can tell him what you saw, and so _I_ can find a proper couch to fall asleep on.

Most days it was a struggle to imagine the fact that outside the Order Headquarters the world was in the midst of chaos, and that their lives were thrown into a kind of turmoil that few ever actually saw. If anyone was completely honest, they still wished beyond reason that there was no way they were actually experiencing what they were seeing.

The silence, however, that seemed to encompass the building was comforting and reliable, and Emmeline wouldn't trade it for anything after the constant noise that had engulfed Saint Mungo's since the Auror's were ordered to pull back from Azkaban. There wasn't much of anything that Emmeline could do there now, not since she got the majority of the wards sorted to give enough room to fit everyone, and the halls were crowded with Healers that were in trying to help everyone. One less pair of hands wouldn't result in anyone dying, particularly when she was well aware of their need back at the house.

For the most part, however, there wasn't much for Emmeline to even do when it came down to it. James had fallen asleep with his head buried in Lily's lap, his girlfriend's fingers still rubbing gentle motions in his hair, the black mess of hair that she used to complain so much about. Remus was nowhere to be found, though she had a sneaking suspicion that he had gone to find Mary, despite her lack of knowledge in regards to the Order at this point. Both the Prewett brothers were sitting in the corner with Caradoc Dearborn and Benjy playing one of many rounds of Exploding Snap.

Marlene Mckinnon, one of the other blonde's in their group, had yet to come back from the Ministry after being pulled back at Azkaban, though Caradoc had mentioned that the woman was apparently sorting through a mountain of paperwork that she had been neglecting as of late, so in reality? Well, of all the people that Emmeline had to worry about, Marlene had never particularly ranked high, and she was rather safe given her location anyways. It was Dorcas flitting around through every room and gathering people's teacups and making sure they had food that had peaked Emmeline's interest, even moreso than the dozing Sirius.

Although her best friend wasn't necessarily known for being the world's most calm individuals, it wasn't often that Emmeline saw her like this. It was more likely that she would see someone like Lily or even Alice trying to make sure that everyone was taken care of, but it seemed that the fellow blonde didn't quite know what to do with herself as of yet. The Ministry had surrendered Azkaban to Death Eaters though, so Emme probably shouldn't be too surprised at the fact that nothing was quite the same anymore. Still, her eyes kept gravitating towards Dorcas whenever she entered the warmth of the den with another cup of tea that she was shoving into the boys' hands. It only took a split second for Emmeline to move and snag Doe's hand when she walked by, giving the girl a soft look for a second before smiling and nodding her head, "It'll be okay, promise."


	2. March 23, 1979 – Shiftings

March 23 of 1979 – Shiftings

There was a good chance that they probably shouldn't have even tried lightening the mood because of what was going on in the outside world, that there was something a bit more serious and intense that was lingering in the midst of this war, but everyone was more than grateful for the distractions that the Marauders and the Prewett brothers were giving everyone. Granted, she also hadn't expected the fact that they would be turning a section of her hair bright purple, but she supposed that was a danger that she was going to have to live with from this point forward.

There was also the good possibility that she should blame James that a stripe of her hair was purple, or that she had somehow managed to have that happen and still wasn't entirely sure how it was that she was standing here like that. Instead, Emmeline didn't have the heart to squash their fun in the midst of this.

It felt like it had only been days since Azkaban had been broken into by Death Eaters publicly won a large battle and more than a few witches and wizards quickly went into hiding, even though that it had been weeks since the attack. Even she had limited contact with her parents these days and there was the distinct likelihood that even her family would venture into hiding until this war was over. If this war was ever finished, that was.

Logically, she should be glad, relieved even when it came to that and that they would be safe but it made Emmeline's stomach lurch and her heart ache at the thought. Emme didn't want to lose some of the only family she has left. Everyone had already lost so much, and it felt like this was just getting started and there was nothing that she could really do to stop it.

An explosion in the manor caused her thoughts to halt and her to start down the hallways towards the sound, half terrified that the Death Eaters had found their little hideaway in the countryside and were attacking before she heard Lily yell James' name is something that was _definitely_ nothing like panic and was certainly a little bit more like scolding. The relief that washed over her took more than a few seconds, though the slow in her step was immediate. Never, in her life, would she have said that there was a good chance she would be spending the majority of her time with a bunch of impulsive Gryffindors who apparently were not particularly good at dealing with Exploding Snap.

Emmeline rounded the corner into the large library that acted as a planning room, and certainly the room that the majority of them spent most of their time to find two distinct groups of people: those that were in the midst of strategizing in the back half of the room, the walls lined with maps of London and even Azkaban, and those that were just trying to escape. Unsurprisingly it was the group that had been trying to find a means of relief from the intense pressure they'd all been under that was a little worse for the wear. All four Marauders were covered in soot, and there was a section of poor Peter Pettigrew's blonde hair that was clearly singed and was letting off a bit of smoke.

Both James and Sirius were laughing at the sight while Remus was licking his fingers and putting out the few little pieces that must have still had a bit of flame to them before shaking his head and patting Peter on the shoulder. There certainly was a very clear reason as to why Emmeline wasn't fond of Exploding Snap, and the fact that there was pain involved was certainly one of many reasons.

Still, it was the quiet hush in the back of the room that pulled her attention away from the grouping in the front. The fact that both Caradoc and Benjy were having a quiet argument while pointing at one of the maps and shaking their head when the other spoke. She sighed softly as she stepped further into the room and squeezed Lily's hand as Emmeline passed the redhead who was still scolding all four of the Marauders and sat down in a chair across from Benjy, nudging the man with her foot.

There was a stutter in the conversation when they both realized that the former Slytherin was sitting with them before starting back in on each other. "You can't just expect the Ministry to explore whatever whim comes into that pea-sized brain that you have, Fenwick!"

"Oh, but your particular little chess moves _should_ be explored?" Benjy rebutted, cocking an eyebrow as his arms crossed against his chest and a heavy silence in the small group for a few moment before the men broke eye contact and Caradoc was pointing back at the board of maps.

"Merlin, it was _one_ bloody time, Ben!" Caradoc growled, tossing a quill in the general direction that Benjy was standing before Emmeline reached up and snagged it from the air before it landed on the ground.

"Bloody _hell_, are you seriously arguing about something this ridiculous?" Emme said, shaking her head for a few moments before turning at a noise she heard from the back corner, smiling softly when James stood next to her chair before bumping her hand against the Potter heir's hip and pointing at the maps, "The maps don't have that underground tunnel that goes from Mungo's to the Ministry," she commented lightly, pulling the attention from the small group to her as they blinked at her.

She would never say that she specialized in that had to do with plans or battle attacks, and Emmeline wouldn't dare imply that anyone was better suited for something like that than Benjy and Caradoc because realistically they weren't. But there were bits and pieces of information that Emmeline still had access to that Caradoc wasn't able to get his hands on, and apparently the fact that the tunnel underneath Mungo's hadn't been closed up like the public was told wasn't something he had access to quite yet.

"'line's right," James said, his voice light and happy as he shrugged his shoulders, "There should be a supply room somewhere in the middle too, you know… in case of an attack that results in a lockdown."

"You're talking about the one that they filled when Gellert Grindelwald was trying to take over?" Caradoc said, standing and walking over to one of the tables that had piles of paper and starting to shuffle through it. "That should have been closed… Merlin, thirty five or forty years ago."

"Political rumor," James said with a shrug, ruffling Emmeline hair before catching a couple strands of the purple color and grinning as he tugged on it. "Officially it's been closed off, but if there was an emergency we could use it, it's worth noting on those pretty little maps of yours."

"Cut it out," Emme bit out, swatting at his hand before he gave another sharp tug and she shoved his torso away from her, rubbing her scalp where the hair connected and glaring in his direction for a few moments before looking back at the pair. "What's the plans for? I thought we weren't doing any attacks yet."

"Contingency," they said together, shrugging their shoulders before pointing at a map that looked like it was Saint Mungo's and causing Emmeline to stand and walk over to them, crossing her arms in front of her for a few moments before nodding.

"How did you even get those?" she said quietly, brushing her fingers against the sketches before pointing at one of the floors, "They've changed this, just a couple months ago, broke down the walls and are using it for potion storage, saved a bunch of lives after the attack because we were running low, actually. I… you know, Mary would be better at looking at these and finding out what's different from what they have now," she said quietly, glancing over at James for a second before the man shrugged his shoulders and nodded in agreement.

There were a few moments of silence where Benjy seemed to be trying to communicate something to Emmeline without using words before letting out a sigh of his own and nodding his head for a moment, "Moody got the layouts from the Ministry so it doesn't look suspicious, but if we need Mary's viewpoint on this? It's going to be best to bring her into the Order now, it would probably be safer for her to begin with."

"No!" Emmeline said suddenly, shaking her head. "Look, is there another way that we can just… do this without her knowing what it's for?"

"Emmeline…" Benjy started before Caradoc interrupted.

"I can tell her that we're looking at it for the Aurors," Caradoc said gently, "It's realistic and would be more surprising if we _weren__'__t_ looking into things like that."

There was a hesitation before Emmeline nodded, Benjy stepping forward before she held a hand up, "She's safer not knowing what goes on within these walls, for now at least, please don't change that yet."

"You're _ridiculous_, Emme, she needs to know. Mary is _safer_ knowing the whole picture and not walking blind with just pieces of it, she's involved whether or not you like it and she's going to come on board sooner rather than later, and you have got to get it through your thick skull!" Benjy said, the weight of his hand heavy against Emmeline's shoulder when it landed there, James standing silent in the group as Caradoc took a step back from the pair to give them some sort of peace in the midst of this.

Emme head was shaking in the middle of Benjy talking, not quite wanting to hear what the man was saying as he spoke and taking a shuddering breath as she tried to figure out what to say, how to explain what was going through her head as to why she didn't want Mary involved in something like this yet when all of their other friends were in the midst of this war in ways that no one could quite explain in an open forum. Their lives this past year had been full of quiet conversations and hidden meanings, and there was a large part of Emmeline that didn't want to live like that anymore when it came to her friends and her family, but there wasn't much of a choice if it meant keeping them as safe as they could be. "My parents are leaving the country, just… I need more time before Mary's in the thick of it, please. Just… just some more time," she asked quietly.

She hadn't been willing to break eye contact with Benjy, her mouth opening and closing for a few moments after her request before he was the one that pulled his eyes away from her and shook his head for a moment before walking off, neither James nor Caradoc quite sure what to do or what to say in the situation that they were in the midst of and letting out a heavy sigh. "You two are bloody batty," James said, nodding once to Caradoc before heading back to the group that had resumed a game of Exploding Snap, apparently with much more luck than the previous one, though it seemed as though Peter was being far more cautious after his most recent encounter with the cards.

"He's right, you know, Vance, we can't keep Mary out of this forever, she's going to find out at some point or another, this is just going to buy us a little bit more time," Caradoc said gently, sitting in one of the armchairs and pulling over a stack of parchment, dipping his quill into the ink and scribbling some words on the paper before looking back at her. "She knows there's something going on that no one's telling her."

Emme nodded her head for a second before moving over to some of the sketched out plans that the pair had sitting on the table, her fingers brushing against the ink covered parchment for a few moments before looking over at Caradoc, "Chess makes you good at this, huh?"

Caradoc let out a laugh as he glanced at what Emmeline was focused on before nodding his head, "It helps. I also was the Captain of my House's Quidditch team while I was there, so that probably helped more, Benjy is just sore that he's not thinking of these things before me."

"It's a Slytherin thing," she said off handedly, pausing only when Caradoc gave her a look and raised his eyebrow. "We plan. A lot of what we do is within self-preservation, but we pride ourselves in being able to figure things out from both sides, you've accomplished that without being a Slytherin, it would bug me too if I was in Benjy's shoes."

"That makes… a bit more sense, I'll admit," Caradoc said cautiously. "The Ministry isn't going to try to get Azkaban back, they consider it too much of a liability right now with their limited resources."

"They should have thought ahead, it was only a matter of time before they went after _something_ big to make a point," she said as she ran a hand through her hair for a second before glancing back at the group that was still playing card games. "Why aren't you with everyone else blowing off some steam?"

"Because I can't tolerate it when the bad guys are beating us," Caradoc said, setting the papers of to the side, and following Emmeline's gaze towards the group, "What's going with you and Black?"

"It's…" Emme said, hesitating for a moment before shrugging her shoulders and letting out a heavy sigh. "Nothing." Emmeline shook her head for a few seconds before letting her gaze move to Caradoc, "There's nothing going on between him and me, the same way there's nothing going on between you and Adelais, right?"

"That's different," Caradoc said, a hard tone underneath his words, one of Emmeline's eyebrows raised in question before nodding her head. "It is completely different then whatever is going on with you and Black, and you have no business approaching that."

There was a moment of quiet where Emmeline wasn't entirely sure what to do or what to say, because she had clearly miscalculated something about what was going on between the two of them. Then again, she was fairly certain that she had seen them tucked away in a corner together at one of the pubs near Saint Mungo's, and it didn't help his case that he was listed as Adelais' emergency contact on her forms that had been dropped at the hospital. "Why do you keep it a secret?"

"Why don't you take a chance?"

For a few moments, Emmeline almost didn't even respond, considering leaving the room instead of dignifying his statement with something in return, and as a result? Well, Emmeline found herself shifting on her feet and running a hand through her hair before looking at the group for a moment and nodding her head, "This war changes everything."


	3. April 23, 1979 - Black, White and Read

April 23 of 1979 - Black, White and Read All Over

_**The End in the Beginning?  
by A. Fenetre**_

_To say that the world as we know it is rapidly changing would be an understatement, but to say that it is changing for the better would be a statement that many, even within the office of this great newspaper, would have conflict saying. It is undeniable that the recent rise to power that Lord Voldemort and his followers, more commonly known as Death Eaters, has changed the dynamic of how each of us live our lives, but mostly in light of the recent surrender of Azkaban by the Ministry, it is the people of this great nation that have begun to question just what it is that our leadership intends to do concerning this brewing war._

_With more Muggleborns and those that support them targeted each day, many of which have ended up with threats on their lives, it is hard for even this reporter to sit back and wonder just what it is that the Ministry intends to do to protect its people. Although the Minister of Magic has publicly stated that they are increasing the patrols of the Aurors, as well as increasing the number of recruits that are allowed into the programs for the enforcement of our laws, the question begs as to why he has not opted to do this months, or even years, previous to this incident. _

_There were Aurors lost within the battle that took place at Azkaban just two short months previous to this article you are now reading, and it is undoubted that all of our lives have been touched by this, whether by the number of people that have now been released back to the public by the surrender or by the fact that now that Dementors are roaming free around the British countryside. One is unable to say that the Minister is unable to living up to the standard that has been set before him by those that previously held that office and have begun to call for Minister Crager to resign and reopen the office for those to be more suitable._

_In the midst of the changes and the pressure that the Ministry is under, however, we have seen strong leadership arise from expected and unexpected places. Professor Albus Dumbledore has stepped up in many ways to show leadership within the defense of the Muggleborns, Half-Bloods and many of the Purebloods who have stood in between those who have been targeting them, though it was to be expected that the well-known war hero would stand in the gap for those who are more defenseless. One of those that have been unexpected, however, is the outspoken and determined Barty Crouch Senior, the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Crouch Senior has shown in the past months that he is of the belief of beginning to fight fire with fire and is making some headway in gaining approval for the Auror's to freely use the Unforgivable Curses against the Death Eaters if attacked, although this decision has been met with significant amounts of controversy._

_While we see many of those in the political spectrum trying to turn the tides of this war, there has been little to no progress made as of late concerning anything changing in the future, and one may wonder just what it is that we will lose before someone starts to stand up for what is right and truly fight back without the concerns of what it may impact politically. This reporter, in particular, hopes that it will not end in the reality of more lives lost in the name of peace._

Marlene Mckinnon threw the paper across the table at Sirius, her eyes narrowed at her longtime friend and former lover, "They're bloody _ridiculous_, because it's not as though…" she huffed, slumping back against the couch as the man picked it up, his eyes scanning the front page and the picture of the Wizengamot in session, undoubtedly from the past few days given the grim expression that was on the majority of the member's faces.

It was hard for either of them to imagine the differences between them, the fact that they were both in complexly different places in their lives then they were just two years previous. Though it wasn't as though either of them would necessarily have identified their relationship as something committed or anywhere near what it probably should have been, that didn't mean that neither cared about each other. Most days it was quite the opposite when it came down to it, actually, and today was absolutely no exception to that particular rule.

"They're right," Sirius said, folding the paper and setting it on the small table before sitting down next to Marlene, propping one of his feet up on his other knee and leaning back against the cushions. "Crager hasn't done anything that is benefiting the Ministry in this war, and the lack of response has been in the Death Eater's favor entirely." It didn't take long for Marlene to shift on the couch and fix him with a nasty glare that had the elder Black smirking over at her with a knowing look in his eye, "Awe, did I poke at little Marlene's favorite politician?"

"You're such an arse, Black," Marlene said simply, slumping back against the couch and propping her own feet against the table in front of them. "Realistically I know the Ministry isn't doing _enough_ to fix this," she said softly, "I just hate the idea of more people having to die to jolt them all into what is going on in the real world."

It was a heavy subject under the best of circumstances, but Marlene had been in the forefront of many of the attacks that the Death Eaters had issued thus far. It was a sobering thought for anyone, and it didn't make Sirius' past feelings towards marlene any easier no matter the circumstances that surrounded them.

There was a silence that passed through the room at Marlene's admission, as though he was almost waiting for her to follow it up with someone else or to make some sort of move, whether it was to leave the room or to start a fight with him, but neither happened. It made the hair on the back of Sirius' neck stand on edge and caused him to move to sit next to the fair haired woman, nudging her shoulder with his to pull her out of her thoughts. "It's war," he said simply, pausing for a moment to gnaw on his lip before glancing over at Marlene, his gaze settling on the woman's eyes, the soft almost pained look in her expression causing him to falter before speaking, "You're an _Auror_, Marlene, you signed up for this shit."

"If I recall, there was a conversation about you and James joining me when we were in school, you know, before you left me in the cold," Marlene snapped, her expression hardening before pushing away from Sirius and turning so she could look at him straight on, her eyebrow raised in a half-challenge.

"I made a judgement call as to where I would help the most, Marlene, and you know it, don't play the martyr," Sirius said, rolling his eyes at the woman's comments and not even meeting her eyes as he turned to look at the fire. "You craved the action that you'd get as an Auror, doing something that could be acknowledged and that was your driving force."

The movement that Marlene made to shove him off of the couch was quick and so sudden that Sirius hadn't even realized that the woman was coming towards him until it was far too late and until he was on his arse, his back flat against the ground. It took a moment longer to even realize that the air had been pushed out of his chest and he was gasping greedily for more air before pushing himself back up towards Marlene, his weight on his elbows while his eyebrow quirked upwards.

"I didn't _get_ an engraved invitation to the Order upon leaving Hogwarts, Black," she grumbled, shaking her head slightly and falling back against the cushions of the couch. She was still pissed, pushing him off the couch they'd been sharing hadn't been enough to eliminate the frustration that she was feeling towards her ex in the least. Instead, the fact that he hadn't really been affected by it was causing it to increase enough that when he shifted to push some of the hair out of her eyes, she was batting at his hand like a toddler.

It wasn't to say that Sirius hadn't realized just how annoying that he could be to Marlene, or the fact that he didn't know just how to push the woman's buttons that would make her react and push back just as much as he seemed to challenge her, but that didn't stop him from making those moves. And despite the fact that he knew that it should have, it was the comfort and knowledge that he knew Marlene through and through that caused him to tug her lips down against his, nipping at the soft skin in an attempt to coax and response out of her.

There was something about the fact that their friendship provided a certain amount a comfort and knowledge that neither was going to do anything to hurt the other, the knowledge that they really did knew what each other needed almost as though it was second nature that had probably caused Marlene to respond the way that she did, her fingers threading into his hair and pulling him a fraction closer to her instead of pulling away from them. It wasn't long before Sirius was sitting up, one of his hands coaxing Marlene so she shifted enough to allow him a place back on the couch.

It didn't take much longer before Sirius had one of his hands threaded in Marlene's hair while the other one had slipped up the back of her shirt, splayed against the skin there as his thumb rubbed against the skin gently. Marlene, to her credit hadn't explored anywhere near as much as Sirius had, though her fingers kept drifting out of his hair and slip under the collar of his shirt, her nails gently scrapping against the skin there when someone cleared their throat and the pair tore apart, Sirius landing back on the floor with a loud thud and a small yelp from the Gryffindor.

"You know, I would say that I'm surprised, but I think disappointed would be a more appropriate adjective to use than that," James' voice came from the doorway, his eyebrows raised as he stared at them.

To say that it was obvious they were caught in the midst of something that they weren't supposed to be doing was fairly obvious, and simply just did not need to be stated out loud no matter the circumstances. Sirius still hadn't lifted his head to the point that James could see it, but Marlene had been quick to tug her shirt back down while she covered her mouth in horror of being caught making out like they were still in Hogwarts. James, however, to his credit hadn't quite said much of anything to anyone besides the few words, and likely wouldn't repeat anything that he saw in this room. It didn't change the fact that he was clearly aware of the fact that the two former Gryffindors should have been the ones that he caught making out in one of the living rooms of Order headquarters.

Marlene was quick to stand, slipping out of the room behind James with a whispered apology while her face was still heated red with embarrassment and unsure whether or not she should stay, hesitating for a moment in the doorway before leaving completely and letting Remus deal with the elder Black sibling.

There was a silence that enveloped the room after Marlene left, the only sound was the crackling of the fireplace and each of the men's breath until James moved away from the doorframe and let himself fall over the edge of the couch into a heap on the cushions, hitting Sirius' shoulder with his hand, "You're sleeping with Marlene again?"

"Nope," Sirius said simple, sitting up and glancing over at James for a second before shrugging his shoulders, "Seemed like a good idea at the time."

"And that conversation that we had a few weeks ago…" he lead, his eyebrows raised again as he shifted to look over at Sirius for a few moments before sighing heavily and shaking his head. "You can't just lead girls on, and as great as Marls is, you're lucky she didn't hit you for pulling shit like that." No matter how fond James was of Marlene, or even Emmeline to some extent, that didn't mean that he was always okay with the way that his best friend tended to treat the women in his life. Marlene had put up with a lot from the man over the years, and was willing to do it for the most part, but even James was fairly certain that Sirius would be losing party if he ended up hurting someone like Emmeline Vance.

For the most part, Sirius was a barrel of fun, and was a blast to go through and enjoy the differences between the women in his life, whether that involved something that was solely friendship or if it was something more than that. It was clear that Emmeline had done a fair job of getting underneath Sirius' skin, and even Lily had been able to tell that there was something more going on than either party was disclosing to the Order. Nothing certainly helped the fact that everyone was pretty consistently on danger these days, and connections that had happened in Hogwarts didn't necessarily disappear just because they were now in the midst of a war that they may not win.

It was a complicated matter under the best of circumstances, and there was only so much that James could do that was going to protect the people around him.

"Marlene understands what's going on in my head," Sirius said simply, shaking his head for a moment before dropping his head in his hands for a moment, "She's like you, and Emme is just… she's different, it isn't playful or fun and it's _different_. Mostly it's different. She pushes me to be more." There was a pause when he finished before James hit him upside the head, his head hitting hard against his knees at the sudden movement, Sirius's mouth dropping open as he turned to look at him, "Bloody _hell_, Potter, what did I do to deserve that?"

"Marlene is _familiar_. When things get tough between Lil and I, when things get serious, and don't make that pun right now, it terrifies me that I might mess it up, so I spend more time with you guys to blow off some steam," James ran a hand through his hair, rubbing his eyes for a moment before letting out a heavy sigh. "It hurts Lily when I push her away because I'm afraid of it getting to be more, which is ridiculous, because it's _Lily_ and I fought for her when she didn't want me to, but what you're doing with Marlene? With Emmeline? You'll lose that battle and be left in the cold on both ends."

For all the natural charm that Sirius had, he wasn't particularly good at establishing a serious relationship with a woman. There was no doubt that it was in part due to the fact that he had never really had one, though Marlene had been the one that came the closest, and even that was more casual than anything else that James could think to describe it. They had been each other's firsts, and as much as James wanted to believe that Sirius had been in love with his childhood friend, he was fairly certain that it was merely something that they thought rather than actually felt.

What James had seen in the past six months with Emmeline and Sirius though, that was something that he couldn't quite define by words, and he didn't really have much of a desire to attempt to when it came down to it. Emmeline was a power unto her own, and something that was so drastically different compared to what they had grown up with in Gryffindor that half the time James wasn't entirely sure how to act around the woman, but his best friend seemed inexplicably drawn to her as more than just a friend. He had watched them together, particularly when Sirius had followed Emmeline out when Azkaban had followed, and even the conversations that they had about the woman had James more confused than anything else they'd dealt with. Marlene had been clear cut, Sirius had known exactly where he stood with her and what he was wanting and was good at communicating that to people. It was Emmeline that threw the entire group off kilter, and Sirius had been stumbling over his feet about how to approach the situation for months.

"It isn't like you and Lily, it's pretty damn clear to everyone that the two of you are great together," Sirius said, his fingers racking through his hair for a moment before pushing himself up and sitting on the couch next to James . "Marlene's great, she's perfect, she's probably prefect for me, and she's a Gryffindor and gets along with all of you. She gets everything around here. Emme is just…" there was a small smile on Sirius's lips as he tried to figure out what to say for a few moments before shrugging his shoulders. "Everything. She pushes me, and it pisses the hell out of me, but she pushes me to do more with my life then goof off and just sit on my arse when I'm not doing something for the Order. It's wrong, it should be entirely wrong, because if you look at it… she's a Slytherin and friends with people like Rosier and Snivillus, and I don't get it, but somehow it just fits and I don't want to not have her around or to see something happen to her that ends with her hurt, I can't do that."

It didn't take long for James to rest a hand on Sirius' shoulder, giving him a gentle squeeze on his shoulder and gave the man a small smile before nodding his head, "Definitely wouldn't tell her about this particular situation that I walked in on if you don't want her hurt then, because I have a feeling this whole conflicted thing you've got going on? I don't think it's one sided."

There was a comfortable quiet in the room as they both settled on the couch, Sirius still leaning over with his weight on his elbows, resting against his knees before letting out a slight laugh and shaking his head, "I'm just thanking Merlin that I wasn't walking in on you and Lil in the throws of it!" The shove the James gave Sirius caused both men to burst into laughter as Sirius rubbed his arm.


End file.
